tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368504086012529655.post5535263735143490770..comments2024-03-27T11:00:55.885-06:00Comments on Keith's Odyssey to Planet Fitness: Genetic consequencesKeithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09364395150014197905noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368504086012529655.post-71006165671250582082011-12-07T05:53:07.253-07:002011-12-07T05:53:07.253-07:00Thanks for the great response SJ. I agree, happine...Thanks for the great response SJ. I agree, happiness is a state of mind. You see people who have everything that humans could possibly reasonably want, (which describes most people in North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and a few other places) and their big complaint is they are bored. <br /><br />A followup thought. Assuming we can grow a new liver on demand, and with a few months notice it could be ready to transplant into someone. Do we do this for alcoholics that intend to keep on drinking?Keith Cartmellhttp://keithsodyssey.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368504086012529655.post-17631595304094415042011-12-06T22:16:05.080-07:002011-12-06T22:16:05.080-07:00What a fantastic, thought provoking post. I'l...What a fantastic, thought provoking post. I'll preface all thing by admitting that I absolutely would get my DNA sequenced, so everyone can feel free to call me a hypocrite by the end, but then I also read my horoscope with the viewpoint that I'd much rather know whether or not my day will go well before I embark on it. And yes, I used to read ahead in the Choose Your Own Adventure books, so I guess that betrays my information good / bad bias.<br /><br />That said, I read a really interesting book called "Stumbling on Happiness" which reveals that much of what we assume makes a happy life is really not very true at all. The most interesting point the book raised for me was that whole-bodied individuals who became paralyzed within six months, and people who won the lottery after six months, both reported the same level of perceived happiness. It explored the happiness level of a pair of conjoined-at-the-head twins, who from all accounts, reported being perfectly...happy. Seriously, genuinely, country-singing aspirations, joint birthday cake, wine-enjoying, married, separate interests, totally fulfilled happy. Which I'd be willing is a state some non-conjoined 'healthy normal' people would hesitate to put on the record.<br /><br />My fear about genetic selection, which I guess better medical information will eventually facilitate, is that we assume that people with differences we qualify as medical defects couldn't possibly have a happy life, because those of us without those differences simply couldn't imagine it. Our biases become "mercies", and that could extend past different abilities to a whole host of preferences. So to me, there's a very delicate balance between what is real knowledge, and what is more our own knowledge, which is subject to our own very complicated and barely understood socio-cultural paradigms. Scary stuff. <br /><br />My mother had a much more direct way of putting it: "booze runs in our family. Watch it." Sage words.SJnoreply@blogger.com